Bradford's congested roads have attracted a new business into the historic Wool Exchange.

The Scooter People has 14 other branches in the North of England and now has base in the city.

Its scooter riding boss Paul Smith said they are targeting congestion-hit cities to sell two-wheeled transport to customers who want to whizz past the traffic queues.

Mr Smith, a founder and operations director of the company, said: "Bradford is a largely ignored city by new retailers but is of particular interest to us because we want to work in cities which have congestion and public transport issues."

Mr Smith, who owns a Vespa, said they sold every type of scooter from basic to the 1960s mod-types to big touring machines.

But he said the most popular were commuter scooters costing about £1,500.

He said riders would also avoid the Government favoured congestion charges which could hit commuters hard.

The company says trials it has staged showed a three- mile journey through Leeds took 33 minutes and cost 51p a mile by bus.

According to The Scooter People, a car journey took 27 minutes at a cost of 27p a mile and scooters did the journey in 12 minutes, costing 4p a mile.

Mr Smith said they were also working with local authorities encouraging them to provide more parking for scooters in partnership projects.

Mr Smith admitted some people knew little about scooters but said the company offered the whole package including training, help with licences and delivery of the machines to homes or training centres.